Human
by Potato Lover 2.0
Summary: After finally adopting Jude and Callie, the Adams Fosters didn't plan on taking in anymore kids. But when somebody in need reaches out, they can't help but say yes.
1. Chapter 1

Elliott stared at the ceiling, trying not to think too much about the situation at hand, which was proving to be rather difficult considering the lack of distractions. It was late evening at CPS and the building was practically empty except for his social worker, who stood at the other end of the hallway, talking quietly to somebody on his phone. He always hated going to new homes. Each one had a different (and usually completely irrational) food plan, a new set of insults, another form of punishment. It had almost gotten to the point where he preferred to fend for himself than be stuck in a house with people that didn't even see him as human, but as a paycheck. People who lived by the philosophy that as long as they keep the kid alive, and they got paid, they're doing just fine. His social worker had promised him that this was going to be a nice home, that these people were nice, but going to new foster homes always made him anxious. It was rare that he was ever placed in a good foster home. Nobody wanted to take in a trans kid, especially not one who had a history of running away and juvie, and the people that did were usually just in it for the money. His social worker always said that he'd find a good place. That he just had to wait. But the longer that Elliott waited, the more doubt he had. He was almost sixteen, and after two years in the foster system and over 9 homes as well as juvie, he felt hopeless.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by the clicking of highheels at the end of the hall opposite his social worker. He looked down from the ceiling to the source of the noise, a tall, official-looking, chocolate skinned woman, whose dark brown curls bounced as she walked. Hurried footsteps came from his social worker, who was quickly saying goodbye to the person on the other end of the phone, before sticking his hand out to the woman, introducing himself.

"Hi Lena, I'm Marcus, I'm a colleague of Bills."

Lena returned the handshake, paired with a warm smile. As Elliott got closer to her, he began to notice more of her features. She looked older, but not too old, maybe in her late thirties or early forties. She looked friendly, like an elementary school teacher, or somebody that you wished was your mom. But there were also little signs of stress, like small wrinkles around her eyes when she smiled. That didn't surprise him though, foster kids were often stressful.

"I'm so sorry to be bombarding you with this on such short notice," he continued "but Elliott is a really good kid, just with bad luck. And it's just so hard to find good homes that will take in transgender kids."

Lena glanced down at him, her eyes kind, yet there was a look of uneasiness across her face, which Marcus noticed too.

"If you'd like, I could show you his file before you make a decision"

Lena hesitated for a moment, looking between Elliott and Marcus before finally nodding "Uh, yeah, that'd be great, thanks."

Elliott looked down at the floor, what little hope he had draining as the adults made their way to Marcus's things, which sat a few benches away. Lena seemed like a good person, but as soon as the good people read his file, they decided they didn't want to deal with him anymore. The good people were the ones who had families and people they cared about, and wouldn't dare bring somebody 'dangerous' into their home. He tried to listen in to what was being said, but he could only catch occasional words. 'Juvie', 'robbery', 'runaway', all in a negative connotation, no doubt. No mention of the fact that he'd only fought the rich white kid with the best lawyer because they'd thrown the first punch, or that he'd only stolen because without doing so he would starve, or that he'd only run away from homes because they'd treat him like actual trash. But that's how the system works. The problem kid is always in the wrong.

Marcus and Lena made their way back towards Elliott, and upon noticing, he did his best to catch the last remarks of their conversation.

"-We'll do our best to make this as short term as possible, just until we can find him another home," Marcus finished. As they both turned to Elliott, Lena looked down at him compassionately. This reminded her so much of the first time she'd met Callie. This poor kid who so badly needed somebody to care for them, and a safe home to live in. Luckily, this time she had talked to Stef before giving another kid a safe home. She took a deep breath before turning back to Marcus.

"Okay."

"That's amazing, that you so much," Marcus smiled, clasping his hands together "Why don't I walk the two of you out?"

As they made their way to Lena's car, Elliott was still somewhat in awe that he was going with her. He was sure that after she heard what was in his file, she wouldn't want to take him in anymore. But here he was, being told to put his things in the backseat of her car, and then sitting right next to her.

The drive began with Lena trying to make some sort of conversation, hoping to get to know this kid at least a little bit better that night.

"So, you've been in the foster system for about two years now, is that right?"

"Yeah."

"And you're how old?"

"Uh, I'm almost sixteen."

"Oh yeah? Nice. I've got twins, Jesus and Mariana, they turned sixteen a few months back." she paused for a moment, waiting for some kind of response, before continuing. "I've also got a seventeen year old and an eighteen year old, thats Callie and Brandon, and Jude, he's fourteen."

'Big family' Elliott thought, wondering if they even had room for another kid. He saw Lena looking over at him, like she was expecting some sort of answer. Elliott wasn't much of a talker, but he didn't want to be rude.

"Cool."

Lena continued to try to make conversation throughout the drive, but after a while, she figured that she wasn't going to get much more out of her passenger, so she turned the radio on, despite there only being a few minutes left before they arrived at the Adams Foster residence.

They finally came to a stop in a driveway, and Elliott looked out the window. As he had expected, it was big, two stories. He took his bags out of the car, and they walked up the front steps onto the porch, which was surrounded by all different kinds of plants, and had both a porch swing and a loveseat. The light from the house shone through the windows, lighting up the now darkening yard, which made it look like those windows you see in Christmas movies. The kinds that are shown through a blizzard, and you see families bustling around inside, and it looks like the most inviting place you've ever seen. And as they stepped inside the house, that's exactly what it felt like. Inviting.

 **Hiya folks. As the holidays are approaching and I finally have some time of from school, I decided I'd try to write some more. I've had this idea jumping around in my head for a while, and I've just finally decided to actually do something with it. Thank you so much for reading, please like, follow and review. I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Peace.**


	2. Chapter 2

Lena led Elliott through her home, quickly showing him through the downstairs part of the house on their way to the kitchen.

"So that's the dining room, but we usually just eat at the kitchen table unless its special occasion. You can put your bags by the stairs there, and then we can go ahead and eat. I made lasagna. Do you like lasagna?" she asked, turning. Elliott nodded, trying to recall the last time a foster family asked him his preference. "Good," Lena continued "The rest of the family has already started eating, but I'm sure there's still plenty of food left. We just have to catch it before Jesus and Jude get leftovers."

Elliott smiled as they made their way into the kitchen, in which the rest of the family sat around a table, talking and laughing. "Wait you did what?!" "I kissed her." "And his girlfriend believed you?" Laughter. "Mariana!" "Yeah, well I'm just glad that she chose me instead." As the noise died down, a blonde woman at the far end of the table greeted the people standing opposite her.

"Hey, love." she smiled at both of them. As Lena hadn't mentioned any sort of husband so far, Elliott presumed that this was her wife. It made sense though. Who better to take in an LGBT kid than an LGBT family?

"Hi, babe" Lena responded. "This is Elliott," she spoke now to the whole family "As I'm sure Mom has told you, he's going to be staying with us for a little while. Elliott, these are my kids and my wife, Stef."

Elliott smiled, simultaneously taking everybody in. "It's nice to meet all of you."

A chorus of greeting rang from the whole table, followed by Stef inviting him to sit at the table, and grab something to eat. "You can go ahead and sit at that end, and Mariana, would you mind grabbing a plate for him?" she asked a girl sitting on his left. He had already pegged her to be Mariana, shorter and dark haired, and she looked to be at least part latina. On her right sat two older boys, who must be Jesus and Brandon. The one right next to her was really tall, even sitting down, and looked to be part latino as well, so he figured that he must be Jesus. Meaning the last one must be Brandon. He was tall as well, although still nowhere near his brothers height, with dark, short hair. On the other side of the table sat a younger guy, Jude, and finally, next to him, a brown haired girl, Callie.

As Elliott ate with them, he realized how genuinely nice these people are. When they saw him, there was no double take, no offensive comments. He was rarely so lucky. There were always questions about his gender or his sexuality. Trying to figure out if he was a dyke or a twink. There was no respect with other people, but he's gotten used to it. He'd gotten used to brushing off comments, avoiding people. But never, since he'd come out, had he encountered people that'd sit and eat with him with no questions, no strings attached.

He didn't talk much during the dinner. Not that he ever did. But they talked to him. And it wasn't like an interrogation, they didn't grill him with questions, not even ones about his time in foster care, like many families often did. It was just comments every so often from a member, filling him in on what they were talking about, not making him talk, but not excluding him from the conversation either.

Dinner soon came to an end, and one by one the kids began to leave the table.

"Okay, I've got to go, Emma's gonna be over any minute." Jesus said, excusing himself from the table.

Mariana turned to Elliott "Oh, Emma is Jesus's girlfriend. And I've got to go too," Mariana now spoke to her moms "I've got a huge paper due tomorrow that I've got to finish."

"Okay love, good luck." Lena smiled, picking up the rest of the dishes from the table and handing them to her wife, who stood at the sink. "And Elliott, we'd like to speak to you for a moment, let you know what it's gonna be like when you're staying here."

Elliott nodded as Stef dried her hands and turned away from the sink to stand behind her partner. "So, while you're here, you're going to be going to school with all the other kids, at Anchor Beach, where Lena works as the vice principal. The curfew on school nights is seven and if you leave the house, we'd like you to let me or Lena know. We'd also like you to know that if you ever need to tell us anything, we're always here to talk, and if you don't feel comfortable talking with us, you can speak with any of the kids."

"Okay, thanks"

"Alright. And if you want to go get your things, I can show you where you'll be sleeping." Lena said, getting up from her chair. Elliott made his way to the far side of the stairs case, picking up his bags, and turning back to see where Lena was leading him. He expected to go up the stairs, maybe to somewhere downstairs that he hadn't seen but to his surprise, she led him back through the kitchen, into the backyard.

"A while ago, we began converting the garage into a guest house. The twins' birth father was living in there for awhile but lucky for you he just recently moved out." She opened the door, inviting him into the room. It was spacious, and held a large bed, multiple shelves, a dresser, a couple of chairs, and most surprising, a bathroom. Fully equipped with a toilet, a sink, and a shower. Elliott couldn't quite figure out why this was the room he was being given. He was sure that some of the other kids shared rooms with each other, so the fact that he, a foster kid, was getting a whole room to himself just didn't make much sense.

"The kids usually get up around 6:30 on school days, but since tomorrow is Saturday, you're welcome to sleep in as much as you'd like, the others usually do. So, go ahead and make yourself comfortable, and I'll go get some sheets for the bed. Sound good?"

"Yeah, thanks."

 **Hello everybody. Thank you so much for reading, and please like and review. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon, which I hope will be more interesting than the first two chapters, which were more expositional.**

 **Happy Holidays :)**


	3. Chapter 3

Elliott stood in front of the bathroom mirror early Saturday morning, trying to decide when to head into the house. It was weird, not actually staying in the house with everybody else, not knowing what was happening 100 feet away. If he went in too early, he'd be in the kitchen before anybody else with no idea what to do, but if he went in too late then he felt like he'd be interrupting them. So he stood in the bathroom, foot tapping, checking the time in 2 or 3 minute intervals, in between which he studied his face in the mirror. It something he used to do a lot when he was younger. Despite all the people telling him that he wasn't a boy, that he was just being silly, or childish, that it was just a phase, he'd still look. Look for parts of him that made him look like who he wanted to be. Who he was supposed to be. He'd always been rather fond of his jawline, it was strong, and some of his Dad's girlfriend's first words to him were complimenting his bone structure. He liked his hair too, after he's cut it, of course. He couldn't have been more than six or seven when he took a pair of scissors to his light brown hair, cutting it all off, choppily. When his mom found out, she was absolutely furious, but Elliott couldn't have been happier. And he was tall. 5' 10". He'd passed his mother in height when he was about 12, although she was only 5' 4". His Dad, however, was 6' 5", and he was eternally grateful that he'd gotten his dad's height. At least he could be an average sized guy.

He glanced at the time again; 8:03. That seemed like an okay time to go in. Some of the kids might not be up yet, but Stef and Lena probably would be, as he was sure that they were fairly busy people, with 5 kids, even on a weekend. So he made his way out of his new housing, looking toward the large kitchen window as soon as he stepped out of the curtained garage door. Some of the family sat around the table, and Stef stood at the stovetop, cooking something. Even without hearing them, he could see that they were talking, smiling, and laughing. They seemed like a happy family.

As Elliott opened the door to leading to the kitchen, the sudden wave of noise he had expected flooded out. As he entered, Lena turned toward him, a friendly smile on her face.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?"

"Uh, yeah."

"That's good. If you want to go ahead and sit down, Stef will have some pancakes ready in few moments. Sound good?"

"Yeah, thank you."

Again, the surprise of how good of a family this was surprised him. Other people don't let their foster kids sleep in, they don't make them pancakes for breakfast, they don't give them whole rooms to themselves. His first foster family was his best. they were polite, respectful, caring. But for whatever reason, social workers would never say, he had to leave. And he had to be placed as quickly as possible, in what ended up being an abusive home, and it all went downhill from there.

"Two or three?"

Elliott jumped slightly as Stef's voice came from behind him.

"Sorry, what?"

"Would you like two or three?" asked, gesturing slightly with the plate full of pancakes in her hand.

"Oh, two's good, thank you."

"No problem." Stef responded, dishing out a couple of pancakes onto Elliotts plate before moving on to Mariana and Callie, who sat with him at the table.

"Do you have any plans today Cal?" she asked, standing over her oldest daughter.

"I'm gonna go see Ximena later, she's gonna help me figure out some stuff for my portfolio."

"How's she doing?"

"Alright, I think. I'm sure she's getting really tired of spending all that time alone though. And not knowing about her parents or when she's gonna be able to leave. If she's gonna be able to leave."

"Well, her lawyer is doing everything that he's able to."

"I know. It just kinda sucks."

"I know." Stef said, placing a kiss on the top of her daughters head, before heading over to her other daughter, who began explaining Callies situation.

"Ximena is Callie's friend, from the art class that she's auditing. Her DACA card expired and now ICE is trying to detain her because they think she made some sort of threat to national security or something, so she claimed sanctuary in a church. They already got her parents, and Ximena was supposed to be her little sisters guardian if that ever happened, so she's trying to get out as soon as possible."

"That sucks." Elliott said, looking over toward Callie "I'm sorry."

"Thanks." she responded, a small smile appearing on her otherwise rather dejected looking face.

"And how about you, Miss Thing?" Stef continued, as she sat down next to her wife. "What are your plans on this beautiful Saturday?"

"Not too much. Except Mat's coming over later. And I have roller derby practice." she explained to her mother before turning to the noise of footsteps coming down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Hey, Judicorn. You're up early."

"Seriously, Mariana?"

"What?"

"I'm almost in high school, don't you think that I'm maybe I'm getting a little old for that nickname?" Jude asked, turning toward his sister, who shook her head, smiling. "And I would've slept in today, but Taylor's coming over soon so I can hang out with Noah in the afternoon."

"Wait, Mat?" Callie asked, looking up from her plate towards Mariana. "Are you guys getting back together?"

"I'm not really sure. Haven't really decided yet." she smiled across the table at her sister, who, after laughing for a moment, got up from her seat, taking her dishes to the sink.

"Okay, I should get going" she said, receiving hugs from both of her moms.

"Okay, have a good time. Just make sure you're home for dinner, yes?"

"Yeah."

The rest of the family arrived soon after Callies departure, and ploughed through breakfast pretty quickly. However, even after finishing his plate, and politely declining seconds, Elliott stayed seated at the table. It's not like he had anywhere to go, inside the house or out, nothing to do. So he sat until the last plate had been cleared and all the kids had parted ways to go do whatever they had planned to do. And once again, like last night, Stef and Lena asked him to stay a moment.

"So," Lena began "last night Stef and I went digging around a little bit, and found an old cellphone. That way if you ever need to contact us or anything, you'll be able to. Sound good?'

"Yeah." giving him a cell phone? That was definitely a new one.

"Anyway," she continued "Stef in on call today, uh, she's a detective at the San Diego police department, so she'll likely being heading out at some point. But I'll be around all day, so if you need anything at all, please don't be afraid to ask. Okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

 **Heyo. I realize it's been quite a long while since I've written anything, but I'll be trying to get back into the groove of things. As always I'm open to and enjoy any suggestions any of you have. Thank you so much for reading, and please follow, review, and have a wonderful day/night/morning/whatever time you're reading :)**


	4. Chapter 4

The Saturday proved to be rather uneventful, as Elliott found himself lounging in the garage most of the day. Tidying up the small amount of items that sat on the shelves. Doing so in an attempt to feel at least a little bit useful, even if only to himself. And despite being alone with only his thoughts, he did his best to not let any real emotions bubble up, however much they might want to. It was usually easier to just push them away than have to deal with them, especially when you don't have anybody to help you deal with them. But regardless of his best attempts, Lena's words continued to run through the back of his head all day.

" _If you need anything at all, don't be afraid to ask."_

Such a typical parent thing to say, despite the fact that she wasn't his parent. It reminded him of how his mom used to talk to him whenever she thought that he might have been going through something. " _You can tell me anything" "_ _Nothing you can say will ever make me stop loving you."_ All that crap that you maybe believe until you tell her that you're not her daughter, that you've never been her daughter, that you're her son, and all of the sudden those things that she said don't matter and you're not even her child anymore.

It also reminded him of his Dad. The parent that said those things and actually, completely, fully meant them. Because, although less common, those types of people exist too. His Dad was the person who continued to believe in him, who continued to support him, who continued to love him even after he came out. His Dad was the person to ask what he needed, to find a way to help him as much as he could. Despite being constantly overwhelmed by work, Elliott was still his number one priority. He couldn't have asked for anything better in a father.

Elliott stood at the counter opposite Lena, chopping vegetables for what he assumed was to be a salad. He'd offered to assist her in making dinner, figuring that making a meal for 8 people was a rather grueling task, but mostly to finally give himself something to do. The curly haired woman stood at the stove behind him, trying her best to make small talk with her new housemate. Like many new foster kids, especially those who have been through a lot, she didn't expect him to be too social, but at the same time, she didn't want him to feel like she wasn't interested in getting to know him, that she didn't want him to be there.

"So, have you always lived in San Diego?" she asked, making her way to the fridge.

"Uh, no. I lived in Washington until I was almost thirteen. Moved out here with my dad after that."

"Oh yeah? How come?"

Elliott paused for a moment at this inquisition, unsure of quite how to answer it. He hadn't talked to anybody about why he'd moved in with his dad, and although he didn't doubt that these people would understand, or at least have some compassion for what he went through, what he was going through, he still didn't want to talk about it.

"Just… family stuff."

Lena turned away from the fridge, and upon seeing the look of uneasiness across the teenagers face, decided that it may be best to not push any further, at least not right now.

"So do you like it here? In San Diego, I mean?"

"I guess. The weather's nice."

"It really is. It almost never rains here, but of course the one day that it did this year was Stef and my's wedding."

"You only got married this year?" Elliott asked, surprised by the fact that these two women who had a family, seemed so in love, had only gotten married recently. He remembered that rainy day, it couldn't have been more than a couple of months ago. But, of course there can always be complications. People or things that prohibited you from doing the only thing that you really want to. And a single piece of paper isn't really what binds people as a family.

"Well, married again. We got married for the first time soon after it became legal."

Elliott nodded as the sound of the front door opening and closing echoed through the house and Callie walked into the kitchen.

"Hey Mama." she said, smiling towards her mother.

"Hey Cal. you want to go ahead and help Elliott with that salad? All the other kids are busy or out."

"Sure."

"So, how's your portfolio going?"

Callie sighed as she made her way to the counter. "

"Fine, I guess. I still feel like nothing I'm making is good enough though."

"Oh, come on. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You need to stop doubting yourself, you're so talented. You don't get to audit an art class just because you're merely mediocre."

"Mmhm."

"How about you, Elliott?" Lena asked, turning toward the younger of the two teens. "Do you have any interest in art?"

"Um, I was into photography for a little while and I used to draw when I was really young but not really, I guess."

"Oh, well Callie's actually quite the avid photographer. Maybe she can give you a few tips."

Callie looked as if she was about to respond when the front door opened again, this time bringing in the eccentric Mariana followed by Jude, who immediately filled the previously rather quiet room with noise.

Dinner proceeded much like it had the first night. The other family members chatting with each other, Elliott not being excluded from the conversation, but not speaking unless being spoken to. After eating, he found himself retreating into the backyard once again, sitting in the lounge chair by the bed. Summer was approaching, and as the air outside was warm, so he found himself without the dark green jacket he so often dawned. He never took it off around other people, not unless he had to. Taking it off felt like he was exposing part of himself, a part that he didn't want people to see. A damaged part of him that he couldn't hide like the things inside his head. Scars and bruises, most of them old, a few of them not so much. Some of them produced by others, some by him.

The stripping of his jacket also exposed another part of him he so deeply despised. The part of him that, after puberty came, became so much harder to hide. The part of him that made people actually view him as a girl. Hips and breasts that he could hide under baggy shirts and ace bandages, but until he actually started physically transitioning, they couldn't fully be hidden. Those and his voice. There was no way to hide his voice. Even if people saw him as a guy, as soon as he spoke people knew. So the easiest way to keep people from knowing was to not talk.

So he didn't talk. And he wore clothes that were a size too big. And he wrapped his chest so tight that sometimes it was hard to breathe. And he cut his arms. He sacrificed so much of himself, not because he wanted to, not because he liked it. But because he didn't know what else to do. He didn't know how to help himself. He didn't think that he could.

 **In response to a guest review, I'm not sure if I'll have Poppy and Ximena living in the house like they do in the show, as I feel like having another two people may be a bit too much. However, this is not set in stone, and if there's anything anybody would like to see please let me know. Please follow and review, and thank you so much for reading :)**


	5. Chapter 5

Sunday proceeded much like saturday had, with breakfast in the morning, then to the garage, then lunch, back to the garage, and dinner. Elliott had never been much of a school person, maybe from lack of ever going to a very good one, but for once he was actually kind of looking forward to it. Not that he didn't enjoy these new people and house, as they were the best cards he'd been dealt in a while, but the boredom was killing him. He needed somewhere else to go other than the backyard and the kitchen. He still felt slightly awkward about going anywhere else in the house, as nobody had asked him to do so and if he did it would feel like he was intruding upon their personal life, the life that didn't involve him.

His afternoon was interrupted by a knock at the curtained glass door. He wasn't quite sure how to react. Saying 'come in' didn't quite sit well with him. It felt like telling somebody to come into their own home, for which they didn't need his permission. So he got up and opened the door, stepping slightly to the side just in case whoever was waiting wanted to come in.

"Hey." Callie said, putting on a smile as the door swung open.

"Uh, hi." Elliott responded, wondering what she might possibly want to do with him.

"Sorry for bothering you, but I just wanted to give you this." She held up a camera in her left hand. "You mentioned yesterday that you used to be into photography, thought you might want to get back into it."

"You really don't have to-"

"No, it's okay. My birth dad just got me a new one, so I really don't have much use for this one anymore." She extended her hand, offering the camera to him.

It took a couple moments of her not wavering before he finally took it.

"Okay. Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem. And Stef and Lena wanted me to let you know dinner will be ready in about an hour." she said, before turning away to go back to the house.

Elliott slowly closed the door before making his way back to where he previously sat, turning on the camera and scrolling through the photos that remained. Some of Callies siblings or her moms, some of what he assumed were her friends, others objects from around the house, or the ocean or trees. They were all really good. The photos he used to take looked ametuer at best. He'd focused more on what his photos meant than what they looked like. He'd tried to give them meaning. He did his best to capture the realest image he could, not ones that just looked pretty. Still, it'd been years since he'd taken any photos, and most of them had been captured with a phone or one of those recyclable cameras, none of them had been with one so professional. He spent the time until dinner trying to figure out how to work it, and although he didn't have much luck, he was grateful to have something to do.

As dinner came to an end, Lena once again asked Elliott to stay in to talk, inviting him to the lounge area found in the corner of the kitchen.

"So," she said, settling down with her cup of tea, "I just wanted to talk to you about school, let you know what to expect."

"Okay."

"Well, Anchor Beach is a relatively small school, we don't have a really big student body or anything, and we do our best to prevent any kind of bullying. However, some people are just going to be jerks, and if anything does come up, please don't hesitate to speak to me or any of the teachers, and we'll do our very best to resolve anything, okay?"

Elliott was no stranger to bullies, he'd dealt with loads of unsupportive or downright disrespectful people, both before and after he'd come out. After a while, he learned how to deal with them rationally, with the exception of the incident that had landed him in juvie.

"Yeah. I'll try not to cause any problems, and I've learned that if I don't bother them they probably won't bother me."

"That's not a bad way to deal with them, but usually you're not the one causing the problems. Please don't feel like you are." she said, giving him a sympathetic look.

"Right."

"Okay. So, we'll leave a bit early tomorrow, and I'll have to head to my office, but I'll have one of the kids show you around. Sound good?"

"Yeah."

"And everything is good here right? You're getting along with everybody, everything good is in your room?"

"Yeah. Thank you."

"No problem." she responded, again with a smile, as she began to stand up. "I've got to go finish some laundry, but breakfast will be ready at about 6:30 tomorrow. Okay?"

"Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight."

"Okay," Mariana began, leading Elliott away from the view of the beach, which he found absurd for a school, into the building. "So your first hour is right in that hallway," she pointed to their left, "and then you've got Timothy, oh he's great, I'm sure you'll like him. You've got a free hour after that, which means you can basically do whatever you want - a lot of kids go hang out on the beach or do homework or whatever. Then you have lunch, which you can spend with me, if you want, I sit with Jesus and his girlfriend and Callie if she'd not busy, and I can give you the directions to the rest of your classes after that."

"Okay, thank you."

"And here is your locker, Lena gave you your combination, right?" she asked, as they stopped in the hallway.

"Uh, yeah."

"Okay, good. And if you need help with anything you can ask me."

 **Hello once again, thanks so much for reading. Please feel free to let me know anything you may want to see - i'm always open to suggestions.**


	6. Chapter 6

As soon as school started, Elliott was yanked out of the protective cove that the Adams Foster family had become and pushed right back into the world of strange looks and awkward comments. Sure not everyone was disrespectful. Hell, some people were even friendly. But even so, it sucked. It sucked that people had to be ignorant and rude. It sucked that the whole world couldn't be like the Adams Fosters. Or his dad. His dad had had it the hardest, he had to deal with a child coming out as transgender. He had to deal with his whole world being flipped upside down. He had to deal with all that change, yet he was the most willing to accept it ,to work with it, to try his hardest to make Elliott feel as comfortable as possible. If a person with so much hardship was able to do have the utmost respect through everything, Elliott just didn't quite understand why other people couldn't have at least a little. It was nothing new though, the lack of respect. So kids calling him out as he walked out of the english classroom or confronting him as he waited in line for lunch, it felt almost normal. Even though that kind of thing shouldn't ever feel normal.

The rest of the school day was, as he suspected, not ideal, but he got through it, as he often had to do. Callie and Jude found him at his locker after last period, discussing their days.

"So anyway, she doesn't want me to do it because we started together or whatever, but it's like she's not even considering what I'd like to do. I mean, this is a really good opportunity for me, I don't get why she doesn't see that." Jude complained, followed by a sigh from Callie.

"Well, if she's really your friend, she should accept what you want to do." she said with a sympathetic look, before turning toward Elliott. "So, did everything go well today? You find your way everywhere and all that?"

"Yeah, it was fine."

"Good. So, we're meeting the rest of the kids outside except for Brandon, he's visiting his girlfriend, and we usually all walk home together, sound good?"

"Yeah."

The walk back to the house felt casual, much like the meals with the family. Conversations going on between the siblings, about boys, friends, schoolwork. The chatter was interrupted by Mariana turning to Elliott. She had meant to ask him about his english class, when she noticed a couple of pale pink looking cuts on his lower arm, a few days old at least, which had been exposed slightly when his sleeve was pushed up as he put his hands into his jeans pockets.

"Woah, what happened to your arm?" she inquired.

"Oh, it's, uh," Elliott stumbled through his words, quickly trying to make up an excuse. "It's nothing, I accidentally scraped it on a branch, I'm fine." he generally wasn't used to people bothering to ask him if he was okay, or noticing something so miniscule.

"Oh, okay." Mariana responded, dropping the subject, although remaining skeptical, as she glanced back down towards his arm, which had quickly been hidden again by his jacket.

"So," she began as they approached the house "Lena is usually the first one of our moms to get home, either around the same time as us or a little while later if she has extra work to do at school. And Stef usually gets home around dinner time, unless she has the day off or is just on call. Anyway, it looks like neither of them are home right now."

When they arrived home and everybody became settled, Mariana offered that Elliott stay in the house with the rest of the kids in the living room where they could work on homework as opposed to heading back out to the garage, so there would be people to ask in case he needed help, as coming near the end of the year resulted in being dropped into the middle of a random lesson plan that he may know next to nothing about.

The light conversations filling the living room were cut short when Lena made her way through the door and came into the living room.

"Oh, look at that. It's so lovely to see all my babies in a room together." she smiled down at all her children. "Uh, except for B, that is."

"Yeah, he's with Grace." Callie said, looking up towards her mother.

"Of course. Any news on how she's doing?"

"I don't really know, you'd have to ask Brandon."

"Alright. And how are the rest of you?"

The room then again filled with small snippets of chatter as the Adams fosters kids quickly recalled their days for Lena.

"Hey Mama, can I talk to you about something?" Mariana asked, turning away from her homework.

"Sure, if you don't mind following me into the the kitchen, I've got to start dinner. You know, maybe you could even help me."

After dinner, Elliott went back towards the garage, for ,surprisingly, the first time since the morning, to finish the little amount of work he had been given at school that day. Soon after he finished, a knock came from the door, and again, like the day before, he got up and opened the door for whoever was on the other side. Both adults from the family stood there, slightly worried looks on their faces.

"Hey kid," Stef began "we'd just like to check in, ask you how you're doing. Can we come in?"

"Yeah, of course." Elliott stepped away from the door, so that they could make their way in.

"So" Lena was speaking now, and sitting in one of the chairs, next to her wife. "Mariana came and spoke to me earlier, as you know."

Elliott nodded, becoming slightly nervous.

"And she seemed a bit concerned about you. She mentioned that she saw some cuts on your arms." she paused, waiting for an answer. This however, made Elliott more uneasy. He'd never had to talk to anybody about this before, nobody had ever really cared, not since he'd been placed in the foster system. And he wasn't sure if these people really cared either, how they'd react. Maybe taking in a trans kid was already a lot, and piling this on top of that was just too much, and this was them letting him know that they could no longer keep him.

"Have you…" Stef spoke again now, looking carefully for a way to approach the subject. "Did

you hurt yourself?"

Any sort of answer that may have been trying to make its way out got caught in the back of Elliotts throat. He wasn't prepared for this.

"I want you to understand that you can tell us. We're not going to get upset. We just want what's best for you. We want to help."

A small nod.

Stef let out a sigh. "Why?"

Elliott took a deep breath in before speaking, but did so quietly, not making eye contact with either of the women. "I… I don't know. I mean, I know it's stupid, and wrong, and I never should have done it… but..." a pause and another deep breath "it's just, everything hurt so much. After my dad died, after everything got harder, it all hurt so much. It was so hard. And I think that maybe it was a distraction... That kind of physical hurt made everything else hurt a little bit less."

The blonde woman now crouched in front of the teen, who sat on the edge of the bed. "Would you look at me please?" he reluctantly turned his head towards her. "It's not stupid okay? It's okay to hurt, it's okay to feel pain, you've been through so much. But it's not okay to keep that all bottled up inside. And we want to help. Please, let us help."


	7. Chapter 7

As Lena left the garage, Stef stayed seated across from Elliott to speak to him, as the moms had figured that talking to one person was less stressful than two. The fear that had originally filled him to the brim began to melt away as he realized that this was a person who genuinely seemed to care about him. She did her best to not make him feel uncomfortable, spoke gently, yet didn't treat him like some broken child.

"Do you mind?" she began, gesturing towards Elliotts arms, though careful not to get too close.

It took him a moment to process what she was asking before taking off his jacket, exposing his arms from the edge of his t-shirt sleeves down. Stef stayed almost completely still as she looked up and down the teens arms taking in the light scars that riddled his skin. Only a few of them looked new, most of them were relatively faded, although they were numerous.

"That's a lot." the woman remarked quietly before looking back up towards Elliott "How long?"

"Um," he began, scanning the arms that he so often kept hidden. It wasn't often that he really studied them, he'd never quite noticed how many scars there were. "I mean, it started getting bad after my dad passed away. He was the only support I had. He was helping me. We were talking to people, gender therapists, trying to figure everything out. It felt like maybe I was finally getting a little bit closer to who I was supposed to be." he took a deep breath. "And then I just lost all of that. So I've been doing it for about two years I guess. It got worse when I was in a worse situation. I haven't done it at all since I got here."

"What happened to him? Your dad?"

"A car crash. Both him and his fiance, on a trip to big bear."

"I'm sorry. And your mom is…"

"Out of the picture."

"Have you ever talked to anybody about it? Losing someone so suddenly can really take a toll on you."

"I've never really had anyone to talk to about it."

"Would you like to have somebody to talk to about it?"

Elliott shrugged, feeling like asking two women, who had a whole family to provide for, to add paying for him to go to therapy, or whatever it was Stef was suggesting, wasn't quite right. Finally, after a few moments of silence and Stef looking at him expectantly, he choked out a few more words.

"It's been a really long day. I wanna go to sleep."

"Of course, kid." Stef responded, standing up and placing a comforting hand of Elliotts shoulder. "Let us know if you need anything at all. We're here to help."

She made her way out of the door, pausing quickly to respond to Elliott's quiet "goodnight".

The next day at school didn't differ much from the first. He didn't mind the classes much, all the teachers were good, but he was still subject to the occasional person staring or making a comment in the hallway, and he still had nobody to talk to aside from the Adams Fosters who he felt spoke to him less out a desire to and more out of obligation. They found him once again at his locker after the day had ended, and they all walked home together, and finally settled down in the living room, just as they had done on Monday, creating what almost felt like a routine, despite the fact that it had only just begun the day before, which Elliott was grateful for, as he so often lacked any sort of consistency while being in the system.

He sat next to Callie, their work spread out on the coffee table in front of them, when she set down her book (some kind of Shakespeare) and turned to him.

"So, you were in Juvie, huh?"

Elliott turned back, giving her a skeptical look before answering. "Uh, yeah?"

"Can I ask why?"

"I got in a fight with a kid at school who had a way better lawyer than the one that the state gave me, and I stole from a store."

"What was the fight about?"

Elliott shrugged "He was just being a dick."

"You got in a fight bad enough to send you to juvie just because he was being a dick?"

"No, he hit me first, and I wasn't just gonna stand there and let him beat the pulp out of me. But his lawyer somehow convinced everybody that i was the danger and landed me in juvie. Which really sucked. A lot."

"Yeah, I know the feeling. I've been a few times myself."

He glanced over a Callie with a sympathetic look, before she finished speaking.

"The whole system really sucks. A lot."

Stef and Lena once again asked Elliott to speak to them after dinner, which had been a delicious roast, some of the best food he'd had in a long time. They settled down in the living room, the moms sitting on the couch across from Elliott, who had settled into an armchair.

Lena talked first. "So, Stef does a little bit of work at the LGBT center downtown, and came across a support group for teens. It'd be a place where you'd be able to talk to some people who can relate to you, find some people who can help you. Does that sound like something you're interested in at all? As opposed to just taking to a therapist?"

'Yeah. I guess so."

"There's also other people there," Stef added on "who are able to help you with any other issues that might come up."

"Okay."

"They meet every other Thursday, and last week was the off week, which means they'll meet in just a couple of days."

"Alright, sounds good. Thank you"

"Of course. I told you, were here to help."

"Right."

"It is right, remember that. Lena and I are gonna head up to bed. Sleep tight, okay?"

"You too."


End file.
